


bittersweet soulmate AU

by PitchonthePitch



Series: AUgust Soulmate AU's [1]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Baz Needs A Hug, Blood, Blood Drinking, Enemies to Lovers, Food, Foster Care, Getting Together, I'm honestly not sure if this should be tagged for non-consensual blood drinking, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Sad Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch, Soulmate AU, Starvation, Suicidal Thoughts, Vampire Bites, baz has self-esteem issues, cravings soulmate AU, eating disorders are mentioned/alluded to, hunger, simon's really just trying to save baz's life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 03:51:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20075686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitchonthePitch/pseuds/PitchonthePitch
Summary: Soulmate AUCravings - You get a craving for whatever your soulmate is eating at the time.Baz often gets cravings for sour cherry scones.  Simon gets cravings for... something a little fresher.





	bittersweet soulmate AU

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a quick soulmate AU I wrote. I found a Prompt List on tumblr and got inspired. I may end up doing one for everyday of the month of August.
> 
> Be mindful of the tags! Stay safe everybody

BAZ

Baz had a craving for sour cherry scones. 

It was lunchtime. Across the table from him, Dev and Niall were being disgustingly cute. They realized they were soulmates about a month ago. Since then, they shared all their lunches. Right now, Dev was gazing lovingly at Niall over a shared bowl of spaghetti. They said their food tasted twice as strong when they ate the same thing together. Disgustingly cute.

Baz didn’t eat during lunch. He didn’t like to eat in front of other people; he was scared of his fangs popping out. 

When he did eat, he ate plain food that could be found anywhere. He didn’t want his soulmate figuring out who he was based on the cravings they got from him. He wouldn’t eat his stepmother’s homemade brownies, just in case she ever served them at a Watford event. He never tried a single sour cherry scone from the Watford dining hall. 

But he knew exactly what they tasted like. 

On the other side of the dining hall, Snow was shoveling another sour cherry scone into his mouth. Crumbs spilled onto his shirt while he ate. He was perfect.

Baz left lunch early. He had to head down to the Catacombs, anyway.

  
  
  
  
  


He still had the taste of blood in his mouth when he walked back into his room. It was bitter and metallic on his tongue. 

Snow was there when he got back. He was in a deep conversation with Bunce. Baz caught a snatchet of the conversation as he opened the door. 

“--having a weird craving. I don’t know what for,” Snow was saying. He stopped speaking the moment Baz walked in the room. 

Baz arched a brow at him. “What’s the matter, Snow? Wellbelove’s new diet doesn’t agree with you?” 

“Agatha’s not my soulmate. Did you need something, Baz?” 

“No,” Baz sneered at him, “just felt like hanging out in my own room for awhile. You’re lucky I don’t report you for letting Bunce come and go as she pleases.” He headed over to his desk and pretended to do homework.

Snow and Bunce spoke in low voices on the other side of the room. Crowley. For someone who accused Baz of being a vampire on the regular, you’d think Snow would just _ assume _that Baz had enhanced vampire hearing. 

“What kind of craving?” Bunce asked him.

“I don’t know,” Snow repeated. “Something… metallic. Almost like pennies.” 

Baz froze.

“I get the craving all the time,” Snow was saying. “My soulmate must have some weird eating habits.” 

Baz wanted to die. He didn’t think blood counted. He didn’t think Snow would get a craving every time he went out to the Catacombs to feed. 

Honestly, until this exact moment, Baz wasn’t completely sure that Snow even _ was _his soulmate. He knew he was Snow’s. Snow was the only person in the world that lived purely off of sour cherry scones and butter. But he didn’t know if Snow was his back. Unrequited soulmates were rare, but they existed. He thought maybe he was doomed to spend his life loving someone who would never love him back.

But now… 

“Pennies?” Bunce repeated. “Simon, whoever your soulmate is, I hardly think she’s eating pennies.” 

Baz stood up. He had to get out of there.

Snow looked at him suspiciously as he headed towards the door. Snow always looked at him suspiciously. “Where are you going? I thought you wanted to hang out in your own room.” 

Baz didn’t bother answering him. He closed the door behind him with a slam. 

He rested against it when it was closed, letting out a breath. He felt sick. For as long as Baz had been feeding, Snow had been getting cravings for blood. He felt absolutely sick with himself, like he’d unknowingly infected Snow with his vampirism. Like he’d ruined him. 

  
  
  


SIMON

There was something wrong with Baz. He looked tired. He sulked around school with his shoulders slumped and his eyes downcast. He had bags under his eyes.

And he hadn’t talked to Simon once, not since he left their room in a huff the other day.

Maybe he was plotting something. Maybe he was trying to manipulate Simon into letting his guard down. Or maybe he was trying to take Simon down by making him worry to death about him. If he was, then he was doing a hell of a job: Simon _ was _ worried. He couldn’t believe he was worried about Baz of all people, but he was. 

Dammit, Baz was good. 

And he wasn’t the only person Simon was worried about. His soulmate hadn’t been eating much lately. Simon only got a few cravings from them each day. Sometimes just one or two. And they hadn’t been eating any of that metallic-tasting food, at all. Simon wondered if they were sick or something.

Penny didn’t believe him about the copper cravings he got. She said no real food had that taste. Unless his soulmate ate pennies. Or drank blood, like Baz.

Honestly, he _ would _end up with a vampire for a soulmate. Oh, the irony. With Simon’s luck, his soulmate and Baz would be best friends, and then Simon would have to spend the rest of his life with that git.

He decided he didn’t really care if his soulmate was a vampire. As long as they didn’t kill anyone for blood. He was just worried about them. They needed to start eating more. Simon tried to encourage them by eating a more varied meal at lunch. As in, he ate more than just sour cherry scones for lunch now. He had meats and fruit and vegetables. He thought maybe all the sour cherry scones he ate were making his soulmate sick. Maybe they’d start eating more if Simon reminded them of all the good food that was out there.

Or maybe they were in a situation were food wasn’t readily available to them, like it was for Simon at Watford. Simon was familiar with hunger. He didn’t always get a lot of food at the foster homes he stayed at over the summers. Often, he would come back to school skinny and gangly looking. 

He hoped his soulmate was in a better situation. He hoped they were okay.

Simon was thrusted out of his thoughts about his soulmate when he walked into his room at the end of the day. Baz was lying on his bed, pale and fragile looking. His eyes were closed, and he appeared to be breathing shallowly. 

“Baz?” No answer. “Baz!” 

Slowly, Baz fluttered his eyes open. “What, Snow?”

Simon threw his bag to the floor and turned on his roommate. “What’s wrong with you? Why do you look so tired? Why haven’t you been eating lately?” 

Baz stiffened, but he didn’t sit up on the bed. “What would you know about my eating habits, Snow?” 

Simon scoffed. “I know you never eat at lunch. I never see you eat here, either. And I know you haven’t been down to the Catacombs in a long time.” He let that last sentence hang in the air, dripping with accusation.

Baz played dumb. “What do the Catacombs have to do with my eating habits?” 

“Baz. I’m not playing games. You need to eat something.” 

“Are you offering?” 

Silence. 

“Relax, Snow. I’m just joking with you.” 

“You can’t get up, can you?” Baz thought Simon was completely oblivious. He wasn’t. Not about Baz, anyway. Simon knew when the git was hiding something. And Simon knew for certain that Baz was feeling too weak to get up right now. If Baz had the strength to get up, he’d already be sitting up on his bed and scowling at him. 

“Of course I can get up.” 

“Okay. So, stand up then. Prove me wrong, Baz.” 

Baz didn’t stand up. After a moment, he let out a sigh. “What do you want, Snow? Do you want to finish me off? You want to put me out of my misery and rid the world of me?” 

Simon faltered. What _ did _he want? He wanted… 

He wanted Baz to get up. He wanted Baz to get up and scowl at him and call him the worst chosen one ever chosen. He wanted Baz to be himself again. 

One of them was destined to die by the other’s hand. So the prophecy said. But Simon wasn’t ready for destiny to happen just yet.

With shaking hands, he took off the cross he always wore around his neck. He tossed it across the room. It skittered and landed in front of the door. He steadied himself, taking a deep breath, before he offered a wrist to Baz.

Baz spoke to him through gritted teeth. “What. Are. You. Doing.” 

“You need to eat,” Simon repeated. “I don’t know what you were plotting when you started starving yourself. I don’t even care. I won’t tell the Mage anything. You need to eat, Baz.”

Baz looked up at him with big, hungry eyes. “Why do you care if I eat or not?” 

Simon shrugged. “Why did you stop?” he countered. Did Baz have an eating disorder? Was he ashamed of the blood-drinking? He didn’t have to be ashamed. Simon wanted to tell him he didn’t have to be ashamed of being a vampire. He wasn’t evil because he was a vampire; he was evil because he was a git. 

He wasn’t even evil, really. Seeing him now, prone and vulnerable on his bed, Simon couldn’t believe that he was. 

Baz was looking at his wrist. “You’re being stupid, Snow.” 

“I don’t care. You have my permission, Baz. I doubt Anathema is going to stop me from saving your life.” 

Slowly, Baz nodded. “Right. Anathema. I can’t hurt you here.” He seemed like he was talking to himself, more than he was talking to Simon. “Even if I lose control, Anathema will stop me.” Slowly, he wrapped a hand around Simon’s wrist, eyeing it like a meal.

He flinched back, pulling his hand back and turning away from the proffered wrist. “No,” he said. “I can’t. I don’t want to ruin you, Snow.” 

Ruin him? Simon leaned towards him, speaking in a gentle voice he usually only reserved for Penny, or scared kids he met in foster care. “I’m already ruined, Baz. Remember? I’m a mess. I’m the worst chosen one ever chosen.” 

“Yeah, but you’re not…” Baz cast his eyes down, like he couldn’t bear to look at Simon. “You’re not tainted. You’re not completely hopeless. You’re not like me, Simon Snow.” 

“Hey.” Simon waited until Baz looked up at him to keep talking. He wanted to make sure Baz really heard what he said next. “You’re not tainted, Baz. You’re certainly not hopeless. I think you’re actually the most perfect person I’ve ever met,” he said, a little ruefully. 

“I’m a vampire,” Baz said. “That’s a pretty big flaw. Just one among many.” 

“I don’t care that you’re a vampire, Baz.”

“You wear a cross just to keep me away from you.” 

Simon felt a stab of guilt. He never meant to make Baz feel ashamed of what he was. All those years, when Simon was obsessed with finding proof that Baz was a vampire, he didn’t know he was hurting Baz’s feelings. He didn’t think Baz had feelings to hurt. He just wanted to know the truth about his roommate. He wanted to find out one thing about him that _ wasn’t _bloody perfect.

“I’m not wearing the cross right now,” he said.

“No.” Baz was looking at his wrist again. The hunger in his eyes had intensified to something that was more like helplessness. “You’re not.” 

“Go ahead, Baz.” Simon held his wrist closer still. “Get as close as you want.” He spoke that last bit like it was a challenge. Maybe he could goad the git into eating something.

Baz’s eyes shined back at him. Challenge accepted. Slowly, he wrapped his hand around Simon’s wrist once more. Pressed his mouth to it. The touch felt like a kiss. 

The bite was quick and nearly painless. As Baz got comfortable, he tugged gently at Simon’s wrist. Simon followed the movement and sat beside him on the bed. 

Simon felt a headrush as Baz sucked his blood. He wondered if he was under a vampire’s thrall. He wondered if that was a real thing. 

And he had a familiar craving for… copper. 

He gasped. “Baz…” His soulmate. “It’s you.” 

Baz let go of his wrist. “I’m sorry,” he said. “All these years… I didn’t know that I was making you crave blood.” 

Simon stared at him. “Did you know I was your soulmate?”

“I knew I was yours. I didn’t think you were mine.” 

Oh. “You thought you were one of the unrequited ones.” Baz nodded. “You know,” Simon said, “I didn’t really mind the blood. The part that really scared me was when I thought you weren’t eating anymore.” 

Baz crossed his arms above his chest, defensive. “I haven’t been hungry.” 

Simon leaned toward him, silently asking for permission to invade his space. 

Slowly, Baz lowered his arms. Simon leaned against him, so they were just barely pressed together on the bed. “You need to eat, Baz.” Slowly, with the utmost care and caution, he wrapped an arm around Baz’s stomach. 

Baz didn’t flinch away. He turned his head so that it rested against Simon’s shoulder. After a minute, he spoke. “Are you disappointed that it’s me?” 

“No.” Simon didn’t even hesitate. “I’m confused, and I’m adjusting, but I’m not disappointed. Are you?”

“No.”

“But I’m your enemy,” Simon argued. “I thought you hated me.” 

Baz lifted his head from his shoulder to look at him. “What you are is a disaster, Simon Snow. You couldn’t be a bigger mess.” He was smiling at him.

“And you like that?”

“I love it.” 

“Why?”

“Because we match.” 

“Will you go to the dining hall with me?” Quickly, Simon added, “We can bring the food back here, if you don’t want to eat in front of everyone.” 

There was only a moment’s hesitation before Baz answered him. “Okay,” he said. “I’m actually really hungry right now.”


End file.
